Inside a Presidential Marriage Will Swift’S Portrait of Pat and Richard Nixon Takes an Unaccountably Rosy View
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Fox Photos Murray Garrett/Getty photo Ronald Dumont/Getty photo Inside a presidential marriage Will Swift’s portrait of Pat and Richard Nixon takes an unaccountably rosy view BY TOM MORAN When Nixon, after his humiliating loss in the California chafed at her distaste for public life and its ethical compro- gubernatorial race in 1962(which most people at the time mises.” Americans have an undying fascination with political thought ended his career in politics), lashed out drunkenly “Ethical compromises” is pretty much a euphemism couples. Whether it’s Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, at the press in his so-called “last press conference,” his when it comes to Richard Nixon, as Swift proves when his John and Jackie Kennedy, Bill and Hillary Clinton or Ba- wife, “still bitter about press coverage of her husband,” rose-colored account runs smack into the Watergate scan- rack and Michelle Obama, we are obsessed with prying in rather than being appalled at Nixon’s intemperate out- dal (at which point he begins to accede to the gravity of the avoyeuristic way into public figures’ private lives. burst, yelled “Bravo!” There is a very fine line between situation by referring to the scandal-plagued president as But few political partnerships are as enigmatic or in- being supportive of one’s spouse and “Nixon,” instead of “Dick”). Swift seems to believe that, triguing as that of Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, a “com- being an enabler of his bad behavior; if had Nixon only listened to his wife (who detested Nixon’s plex and mysterious” relationship examined by Will Swift Nixon was, as Swift points out, “quick arrogant White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman; he in his romanticized dual biography, “Pat and Dick: The to feel victimized,” his wife was even returned the favor by referring to the First Lady as Nixons, An Intimate Portrait of a Marriage.” Note the quicker to agree with him. “Thelma,” her actual given name), the whole nasty scan- billing: as with Joseph P. Lash’s1971 classic “Eleanor and Based on newly released letters and dal, and the president’s eventual resignation in disgrace, Franklin,”this book aims to give the wife in this political documents unavailable to previous might have been avoided. partnership some long overdue equal time. Nixon biographers (most of whom This is doubtful; after all, when Nixon finally agreed to When Richard Nixon (referred to by the author as Swift ignores, with the notable excep- let his wife accompany him on his trip to China in 1972, he “Dick”) first met Pat Ryan, he was immediately smitten, tion of the sycophantic Jonathan Ait- told Haldeman “If Pat goes, she goes solely as a prop.” He and with his customary dogged determination was pre- ken), “Pat and Dick” is very much a did not let his family in on the criminal conduct that led to pared to undergo any humiliation at her hands to win her. Pat and popular,not a scholarly biography. It his downfall until he was on the verge of resigning, at Nowadays we would consider Nixon’s behavior during relies for the most part on sympathetic which point there was nothing to be done about it; as their courtship grounds for a restraining order (Pat later Dick sources such as RichardNixon’s auto- Nixon told his family, “Well, I screwed it up good, real told a biographer that she thought her suitor was “nuts or By Will Swift, biography and Julie Nixon Eisen- good, didn’t I?” something”), but it worked. Nixon overcame her initial Threshold hower’sbiography of her mother. After a difficult (and on Nixon’s part nearly fatal) transi- indifference, wore down her resistance, and eventually Editions, 496 There are occasional enlightening tion to civilian life, the Nixons did seem to find some sort made her his wife. It was the first victory that made all his pages, $30 moments, as when Pat, who very much of domestic contentment in their post-White House years, future victories possible. did not want her husband to run for as the couple delighted in their grandchildren and Nixon It is hard to read about Pat Nixon’s difficult if not trau- governor of California in 1962, finally acquiesced to the worked on his remarkable transformation from unindicted matic childhood and not deeply admire the strength and campaign, sighing to their famous dog, “Well, Checkers, co-conspirator to respected elder statesman. Pat Nixon’s determination that allowed her to overcome obstacles that here we go again.” You can almost picture the woman death from cancer devastated him. “On the day of Pat’s would have crushed a lesser person. But as you get further rolling her eyes. funeral,” Swift relates, “a mourner told Nixon aide Leon- into Swift’s account of the Nixons’ marriage and their “One reason that the Nixons are fascinating,” writes ard Garment that ‘Dick would be dead within the year.’ He journey though American politics, you start to wonder Swift, “is that they embody marital ambivalence. ... Dick was.” whether Pat Nixon was really suited to be a political wife, was drawn to and grounded by Pat’s discipline and her or if her chronic inability to let go of a grudge exacerbated ability to structure their home life. He also rebelled against Tom Moran is a freelance writer who lives in New York. her husband’s worst instincts. it. He loved her dignity and her righteousness, and yet he 1.12.14 |printersrow 11.